Trans ROCHESTER Speaks

A dialogue in community history

In recent years, transgender people have become a popular topic in mainstream media. With trans advocate Laverne Cox gracing its cover in 2014, Time Magazine proudly declared the struggle for transgender liberation “The Next Civil Rights Frontier.” This rhetoric, fueled by sudden increase in representation, has lead many to think of transgender issues as the next big thing for LGBT rights. Much of this coverage overlooks the long tradition of transgender activism. As transgender people and the struggles they face become more recognizable, it is vital that we also recognize the history that has come before.

This project documents and preserves transgender history in Rochester, New York through oral history, archival research, and photographs. Oral history is the practice of using people’s experiences, their personal stories, and their own words as a primary source. This type of research provides powerful reflections of the past and its meaning. Rooted directly in people’s lives, oral history celebrates individual voices. This project begins to document transgender history in Rochester; it is neither complete nor definitive. In particular, most of the interviewees were white middle-class transgender people. By including more voices, future research would honor the greater diversity of transgender Rochester. This is only the beginning of the conversation that must be continued.

The following dialogues illustrate the agency of transgender Rochesterians. Their stories show ways in which people formed connections, built communities, and provided resources for future generations. Most importantly, these dialogues emphasize the contributions that transgender people have made to the city they call home. Transgender people have always been, and will continue to be, a vital part of Rochester’s history.To the people who participated in this project, thank you for sharing your stories and your personal archives.

People

JoAnne Metzler

Karen Anne Bills

Pam Barres

Maur DeLaney

Sam Waters

Shauna O'Toole

Empty Closet Profiles

JoAnne Metzler

JoAnne Metzler has been heavily involved in the Rochester transgender community since 1989. In the following sections, she describes her personal development and reflects on the enormous changes she has witnessed since first coming out in the 1970s

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The oldest of four children, JoAnne Metzler was born in 1952 to a working-class family in Pittsford, NY. Metzler began developing a more feminine gender identity as a child, but she unconsciously knew not to act on her urges . She experimented with her gender and sexuality as a teenager, but she gave up crossdressing after a falling-out with her family. Throughout the interview, Metzler details her personal development, including her employment history and positive experience of transitioning at work, as well as her mental health struggles.She began attending meetings of the Crossdresser’s Network in 1989, but stopped in 1995 for fear that continuing crossdressing would ruin her marriage. She joined the Rochester Transgender Organization in 1997 after committing to living her life fully as a woman. Metzler became involved in organizing the group as it evolved into the Rochester Transgender Group and eventually the Trans Alliance of Greater Rochester. Metzler has also been involved in the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley, the Greater Rochester Association of Record Management Administrators, and the Thinking Forward Group of Rochester. Though preferring to work behind the scenes, Metzler has been a champion of visibility, education, and outreach for the transgender community.

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JoAnne Metzler
Early Coming Out

Metzler recounts first coming out as transsexual to her family and therapist in 1974. While dressed as her female alter-ego, Debbie Dumond Scott, she reconnected with Mark, her ex-lover from prep school. Despite the idealistic plans she had made with Mark to become a woman and build a life with her lover, her transsexual identity was not met with support by her family or her therapist, and she became severely depressed.

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In the privacy of her own apartment in 1974, Metzler lived out fantasies of becoming Debbie Dumont Scott. In the role of Debbie, she called her former lover Mark, with whom she had crossdressed while in prep school, and the two began a long distance relationship. Metzler was seeing a psychiatric nurse at the time for mental issues unrelated to her gender, and Mark convinced her to come out as transsexual to her therapist. The therapist recommended that Metzler undergo psychological testing. While waiting for the results of the testing, Metzler optimistically sent a letter to her parents detailing her plans to marry Mark and live fully as Debbie. But within a month, her plans faltered. Her parents, believing Metzler’s crossdressing lifestyle would affect the whole family, did not approve of her decisions and excommunicated her. Meanwhile Mark’s family had a similar reaction and forbade him from seeing Metzler. On November 5th 1974, Metzler received the results of her psychological testing, which indicated that she was not fit to transition. Even forty years later, this evokes emotion in Metzler. Left without the support of her family, therapist, or lover, Metzler fell into the deepest depression of her life.

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JoAnne Metzler
Finding Community

In 1989, Metzler joined the CD Network, where she met Pam Barres. Despite the support she received from her friends in the group, she was not ready to come out to her wife and end her marriage. Terrified, she vanished from the community in 1995.

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In the late 1980s, Metzler began feeling the desire to crossdress again after suppressing her urges since 1974. Her therapist at the time recommended that she join the CD Network. Though the group was very secretive and relied on anonymity, the CD Network hosted regular meetings along with events and dinners. In October 1991, Metzler attended Autumn Accord, a crossdressing event in Syracuse, where she became very close friends with Pam Barres. Metzler continued making connections in the community and progress in her therapy appointments. In 1995, her therapist suggested that Metzler show her wife photographs of her dressed as a woman. Knowing that would end her marriage, Metzler refused and abruptly terminated her involvement in the CD Network and the transgender community.Metzler returned to the community and began transitioning after experiencing suicidal thoughts again in 1997.

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JoAnne Metzler
Transitioning at Work

Metzler discusses the process of transitioning at Nixon Peabody, beginning with a life saving decision in August of 1999 and ending with her first day at work as JoAnne in February 2000.

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Metzler vividly recalls August 1st 1999, when the stress of living a double life became too much to bear and she called her friend Marie in the midst of an emotional breakdown. After talking with Marie, who she had met through the CD Network, Metzler recognized that she needed to transition in her workplace. Though she had been contemplating coming out at work since 1992, she never went through with her plan due to overwhelming fear that she would lose her job, as she knew other transgender women had.In August of 1999, she came out to her Human Resources representative. After deliberating with management and other resources, the representative assured Metzler that the company supported her decision to transition on the job. Metzler personally came out to two people each day in the following weeks, attempting to prevent any rumors from spreading, and in preparation of her transition, Metzler’s therapist, Pam Walter, conducted several sensitivity trainings within the company. Throughout this process Metzler was met primarily with support from her coworkers. However, a small group of women were concerned about Metzler using female assigned bathrooms in the building. In the stated interest of cis womens’ safety, a reasoning she deplores, Metzler was forced to use a unisex bathroom in the parking garage twelve floors below her office.For the first time on February 29th, 2000, Metzler, despite immense trepidation, came to work as JoAnne.

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JoAnne Metzler
GENDA

Beginning in 2007, Metzler, accompanied by other members of the trans community, took an annual trip to Albany, NY to participate in Lobby Day (later renamed Equality & Justice Day) with the Empire State Pride Agenda. Metzler made the trek to lobby for the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA). This legislation adds “gender expression” to the existing New York non-discrimination laws, effectively protecting transgender and gender non-conforming New Yorkers from discrimination in employment, housing, and in other situations. The passage of GENDA has been a major point of LGBT activism in the past decade.Metzler fears that activism will significantly decrease following the passage of GENDA, citing a similar decline in political involvement after New York passed marriage equality. Following the legislative victory, many LGBT non-profits lost donations from wealthy gay men whose primary interest was securing marriage rights. While she recognizes that there are other transgender issues not covered by GENDA, Metzler admits that she herself is not likely to travel to Albany regularly if GENDA passes, as she will have achieved her primary goal.In October 2015, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced an executive order which would add “gender expression” to existing New York non-discrimination laws. This executive order went into effect in January 2016.

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JoAnne Metzler
Visibility

Reflecting on the past two decades of involvement in the trans community, Metzler identifies visibility as her top priority. She describes struggles shared by every community member she met since 1997 and argues that visibility for trans people is vital.

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Metzler begins by referencing a quote by Gandhi, “You must make the injustice visible.” Visibility has always been Metzler’s top priority, inspiring her to write about trans issues in the Empty Closet newspaper every month for nearly two decades. In 1997, she created an eight foot wide banner from vinyl window shades that read “Transgendered and Proud.” The work she has done for the community has always been focused on recognition.Since the beginning of her involvement in the community since 1997, Metzler found two key experiences that have been shared by every trans person she has known, regardless of their age. First, everyone felt deep and lasting shame associated with their gender, though they could not identify the source, and they had to keep it secret. Secondly, everyone thought they were “the only one” to feel this way. While describing the experience of meeting another trans person for the first time, Metzler became emotional, and she asserted that this ubiquitous isolation is why greater visibility and support groups are vital for the wellbeing of trans people.

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JoAnne Metzler
A Planetary Shift

Metzler describes the recent meteoric rise of transgender visibility and support for transgender rights, on a local scale as well as a nationally.

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While thinking about her life, Metzler is astounded by how much progress has been made by the trans community, particularly just since 2014. She begins by mentioning the Kimberly and Beck calamity, which occurred in May 2014 when hosts of The Morning Buzz on local radio station 98.9 verbally attacked the transgender community and a transgender child on air. Metzler particularly notes the immediate support they received from the larger Rochester community and even the international community. She adds that the Trans Alliance of Greater Rochester (TAGR) was not the catalyst for any actions against Kimberly and Beck; they were simply reacting to the advocacy led by allies.Metzler also discusses Caitlyn Jenner and other transgender celebrities, as well as media representations of trans people, describing the recent rise in visibility and acceptance as a 'planetary shift.'Metzler highlights the progressive nature of Rochesterians. The Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley has been active for more than forty years, and The Empty Closet, Metzler speculates, may be the longest running LGBT newspaper in the world.

Karen Anne Bills

Karen Anne Bills came out as a transgender woman in 1995. After decades of discrimination and hard times, her life has taken a dramatic upswing in recent years. In this interview, she discusses changes in medical care, animosity between gay and transgender communities, and her involvement in religious life in Rochester.

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Karen Anne Bills grew up in the rural areas around upstate New York. Grappling with her gender identity from a young age, she overcompensated and lived a decidedly hyper masculine lifestyle, working as a longshoreman and becoming heavily involved in local biker gangs. In the mid-1990s, she finally came to terms with her gender and started living as a woman. Around 1995, she was diagnosed with a debilitating autoimmune disease. Enduring decades of hard times, Bills was publicly outed on a local radio station, faced discrimination on the job at Xerox, and received inadequate medical care from doctors who refused to even touch her. However, she survived with the help of friends and allies, particularly those involved in Third Presbyterian Church. Within recent years, Bills’ life has been on a distinctive upswing, thanks to better access to healthcare and an increasing number of friends willing to help her out. Throughout the interview, Bills shared her wisdom concerning making friends, building supportive communities, and embracing diversity.

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Karen Anne Bills
Life as a Biker

Reflecting on her past life as a biker, Bills recounts first coming out to her loyal friend Froggy.

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Overcompensating to hide her femininity, Bills lived as a hyper-masculine biker. She refers to it as her facade that kept the world from questioning her until she was able to reconcile her gender. Eventually, the stress of living as a man was too much, and she decided to step down from her position as president of a motorcycle club. One night at a meeting, she simply resigned without giving a reason. After the meeting, she came out to Froggy, her most loyal friend in the club. Though he did not quite understand, Froggy promised to support Bills.A few weeks later, Froggy and Bills went to a bar together in Newark, NY while Bills was dressed as a woman. Initially she was apprehensive, but Froggy vowed to protect her. Upon entering the bar, people stared and snickered at Bills until Froggy stood up for her, threatening to harm anyone who chastised Bills. After that night, Froggy told Bills he would remain loyal to her, and the two still remain friends.

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Karen Anne Bills
Workplace Discrimination at Xerox

After transitioning at her workplace, Bills recounts being set up to fail by management.

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In the mid 1990s, Bills transitioned in her workplace at Xerox. As a result of her transition, she was moved to a different department, along with a Chinese man and a Hispanic woman, where she was given impossible work assignments. If she failed to complete her job, she would be fired for incompetence. Recognizing the intentional maltreatment, Bills advocated for herself and her coworkers, and eventually they were returned to their original departments. Bills adds that she also was not allowed to use the women’s restroom after she transitioned.

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Karen Anne Bills
Negative Experiences Health Care

Bills describes decades’ worth of terrible experiences with doctors who were unfamiliar with transition care and refused to treat her.

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In 1999, Bills began transition care with Dr. Diego Cahn-Hidalgo in Rochester. Due to lack of insurance and other issues, she had to leave his supportive practice. In the coming years, Bills struggled through inadequate medical treatment and several doctors who openly discriminated against her due to her gender identity. She discusses her experiences with doctors who refused to touch her or write her prescriptions.

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Karen Anne Bills
Dr. William Valenti & Trillium Health

After nearly twenty years of poor treatment from doctors, Bills began seeing Dr. William Valenti at Trillium Health in 2014, and she says it changed her world.

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After hearing about Dr. William Valenti from a friend, Bills found his profile on Facebook and they developed a personal relationship with him immediately, even before she had a scheduled appointment with him. This friendship became stronger when Bills met Valenti in person at Trillium Health. During the appointment, they mostly talked and shared stories. Bills describes the positive treatment she has received from the entire staff at Trillium Health and notes that her prescriptions are always filled quickly and with ease. In addition to medical care, she has received legal aid from Trillium Health to begin the process of changing the gender markers on her state ID and her birth certificate.

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Karen Anne Bills
ENDA & Animosity

Bills describes the hostility between the gay community and the trans community, specifically referencing the exclusion of trans rights in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

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After marriage equality was passed in New York, gay activism waned despite struggles still faced by the transgender community. Bills refers to the recent rise in transgender visibility as simply 'this year’s theme” and asserts that it is “too little too late.'Bills describes her frustration with the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a contentious piece of legislation which would grant employment protections to the LGBT community on the basis of sexual orientation. As Bills notes, one draft of ENDA explicitly included protections on the basis of gender identity and expression, which would have served to protect the transgender community, but politicians reduced the legislation to a bathroom issue, arguing that transgender people should not be allowed to use public bathrooms. In order to pass the legislation, protections for gender identity and expression were removed, at the expense of the trans community. The gay community praised this draft and supported it. Bills remains bitter about this political betrayal, saying they 'wanted it so bad, [they] forgot about us.'

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Karen Anne Bills
Third Presbyterian Church

Bills reflects on the impact that Third Presbyterian Church has had on her life, as well as the impact she has had on the church.

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Hungry and looking for a food pantry, Bills stumbled upon Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester. There she met the minister Deborah Hughes, and she was welcomed into the congregation with open arms. At other churches, Bills had felt displaced, despite their claims of being accepting of LGBT people, but at Third Presbyterian, she was a cherished member. Another minister, Martha Langford, appointed a special committee of friends and church members who were dedicated to ensuring Bills’ health.In the years that Bills has been a member of Third Presbyterian, she has influenced change by installing a Forever Candle and extending the hours of the chapel to welcome more people. Several times she reiterates the welcoming nature of the church, especially in regards to queer and trans people.

Pam Barres

Pam Barres has been heavily involved in the transgender community of Rochester since 1989. Throughout her interview, she discusses her development from early experimentation with cross-dressing to living fully as a woman.

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Pamela Barres was born in Rochester in 1942 as an only child in a middle class family. Her gender identity began developing at an early age and she experimented by shoplifting women’s clothing and wearing it in secret. She continued crossdressing privately, and occasionally with her wife, in her early adulthood while traveling internationally for business with Kodak. Though her wife was supportive of her crossdressing in private, Barres suppressed her urges to become a woman, resulting in mental anguish. She decided to transition and live fully as a woman in December of 1988 after the unexpected death of her cousin George, with whom she was very close. At the recommendation of her therapist, she began attending Transvestites Anonymous, a group which would later become the CD Network. Barres contributed greatly to Rochester’s transgender community, and larger LGBT community, by co-facilitating the CD Network and the Rochester Trans Group. She also served as the interim director of the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley, was an active member of the Empire State Pride Agenda Political Action Committee, and was involved in Rochester Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE).

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Pam Barres
Caught Cross-dressing

In 1964, Barres’s mother found a nightgown in the bathroom. Barres came out to her parents, altering her relationship with her parents for decades to come and beginning her complicated journey.

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When Barres was 19 years old, her mother found a nightgown in the bathroom. Barres admitted it was hers, and her confession immediately altered her relationship with her parents, the effects of which she would feel for decades to come. Her parents questioned her sexuality and insisted that she see a psychiatrist. Reluctantly compliant, Barres made an appointment at the University of Rochester Medical Center, though she only filled out intake information and never actually saw a doctor. She adds this was where she first heard the word “crossdresser.” Barres’ parents, believing her crossdressing was just a phase, never talked about the incident again.

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Pam Barres
Traveling and Cross-dressing

Barres traveled frequently while working at Kodak International. She used this time to experiment with crossdressing in the privacy of her hotel rooms, though she was deeply paranoid about being caught and outed.

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Working for Kodak International, Barres travelled frequently all over the world. During this time, she would cross-dress secretly in hotel rooms. While in London, she bought a book and a magazine about men who dressed up as women. She was careful to hide these among less incriminating magazines, emphasizing her paranoia.In South Africa, Barres bought a nightgown and, telling the saleswoman it was a gift for her wife, requested that it be gift wrapped. At night in her hotel room, Barres would wear the nightgown, then carefully fold it up, return it to its box, and tape it shut. This allowed her to hide her secret as she travelled through customs. Additionally, Barres removed the covers from the books she kept in her briefcase. She reiterated her fear of being outed and referred to this era as 'a time of hiding.'

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Pam Barres
George’s Influence

Barres describes her relationship with her cousin George, adding that he was more like a brother to her. His unexpected death in December 1988 forced Barres to face her own mortality and, ultimately, convinced her to begin her transition.

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Barres was very close to her cousin George, who was living in Washington DC. In December 1988, he was involved in a car accident and was found dead.At the time, Barres was working in Latin American region for Kodak. A mutual friend informed her of George’s death on the same day as the accident. After attending George’s funeral, Barres called Monroe Medical Society to find a doctor that could help her transition. As an only child, Barres considered George her sibling, and she was devastated by losing him. Recognizing that they were both 44 years old, Barres faced her mortality and started an odyssey to find herself.

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Pam Barres
Interactions with Mental Health

Barres discusses her interactions with psychiatrists and mental health counsellors. Prior to 1989, mental health professionals used conversion therapy techniques, which promised to “break” her crossdressing habits. In 1989, Barres began seeing a therapist who finally taught her to embrace her transsexualism.This clip is separated into three sections.

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As Barres got older, she developed digestive issues related to mental and emotional stress. After a series of medical tests that did not yield any results, she decided to see Dr. Edelson, a therapist in Rochester. Edelson theorized that Barres wanted to emulate women because she wanted to prove she was better than a woman. Edelson told Barres to stop crossdressing and promised his treatments would “break it.”In the late 1980s, Barres’ stress-related stomach issues got worse, and she began seeing Dr. Robert Horn. Horn urged Barres to quit crossdressing entirely, and through treatment he attempted to convince Barres that it was “great being a guy.”Finally, in January of 1989, Barres began seeing Pamela Walter. Walter encouraged Barres to come to her appointments dressed as a woman. She also recommended books to Barres relating to transsexualism. Barres underwent psychological testing at the University of Rochester Medical Center, a process which she now belittles, and medical professionals declared her a “certified transsexual.”

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Pam Barres
Finding Community

Barres recounts the process of finding other transsexual women and groups in the Rochester area. She fondly describes her first experience attending the CD Network, a support group for crossdressers in Rochester.

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Around 1986, Barres confided her growing gender dysphoria with her wife. She had heard about a group for crossdressers, and she serendipitously found an advertisement for a crossdressing group in the personals section of the newspaper. She describes her hesitation to join the group, and by the time she finally built up the courage to call the number in the ad, it had been disconnected. Later in 1989, Barres’ therapist, Pamela Walters, introduced her to Reg Phillips, who became the first transsexual person Barres ever met. Phillips introduced Barres to the group she had been looking for. This group was originally known as Transvestites Anonymous, but the members changed the name to the CD Network.Barres fondly recounts getting ready for her first meeting with the group, which included purchasing a “god-awful” wig and having her makeup done by a drag queen. She notes that the group would often go to lesbian bars after meetings, particularly Rosie’s on Monroe Ave.

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Pam Barres
Evolution of TVA and CD Network

Barres discusses the evolution the CD Network, from a support group in the early 1980s to an autonomous group by the time she joined in 1989. She also details the culture within the group, and she briefly describes the difference between crossdressers and transsexuals.

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In this clip, Barres describes the Transvestites Anonymous group and its evolution from a support group into the CD Network. The group was original founded by Horace Lethbridge, a therapist and gay man, who started a support group for men, both gay and straight, who liked to “dress up.” In 1985, members claimed ownership of the group, naming it Transvestites Anonymous, and published their own newsletter. Members renamed the group the CD Network in December of 1989, favoring a more discreet name. In order to maintain privacy and anonymity within the group, members used pseudonyms and avoided last names during group meetings. Barres notes that sometimes she would see people outside of the group, and she adds “we were all very careful” to remain discreet.The group met at Dr. Lethbridge’s counselling office on Wellesley Street in Rochester. Barres describes the space as very confined. Typically members would bring feminine clothing to the meeting and would get dressed in the cramped bathroom, which Barres insists was the size of a movie theater popcorn machine. Barres briefly alludes to the differences between crossdressers and transsexuals. She always identified as a transsexual, but during the late 1980s, she assumed the role of a crossdresser because she felt that living fully as a woman and maintaining her current lifestyle was simply impossible. This suggests that crossdressing was viewed as a behavior while transsexualism was an identity.

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Pam Barres
Fantasia Fair

Barres remembers her life-changing and emotional experience at Fantasia Fair in 1990. She recalls meeting influential trans women and crossdressers, including Joanne Roberts and Virginia Prince.

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Soon after joining the CD Network in 1989, group members told Barres about Fantasia Fair, an annual convention for crossdressers and transsexuals, from group members. The next year, in 1990, Barres attended the Fair for a long weekend in October. Barres recounts traveling from Rochester to the convention in Provincetown, Massachusetts. As she traveled eastward through New York State, she stopped at each rest stop along the Thruway to paint her nails, put on her wig, and gradually get dressed. By the time she reached Massachusetts, she was dressed fully as Pam.“And my life changed.”At Fantasia Fair, Barres met a number of influential women and crossdressers, including Joanne Roberts, who founded Renaissance Education Association, and Virginia Prince, who founded the Tri-Ess crossdresser organization. Barres describes Virginia Prince and her Tri-Ess organization as “all very homophobic.” Barres goes on to recount other people she met at the Fair, adding that she “wish[es] [she] would’ve known their real names.”While meeting other women at Fantasia Fair, Barres became aware of crossdressing groups that existed all across the country, including cities in which she had traveled frequently earlier in her life. Decades before, she was secretly crossdressing alone in hotel rooms, unaware of the groups that existed in those same cities. Upon leaving Fantasia Fair and Provincetown, Barres was overcome with emotion. She recalled, “It was so wonderful to be there and just to be a woman all that time.”

Maur DeLaney

Maur DeLaney has dedicated himself to creating non-judgemental spaces for gender expansive people by creating the Genesee Valley Gender Variants group in 2011. In the following sections, DeLaney discusses the development of his identity, community resources, and trans-related healthcare services.

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Maur DeLaney was born in Buffalo, NY in 1976 and adopted by his parents when he was six weeks old. In 1980 he moved with his family to Baltimore, where he shared fond childhood memories, and returned to Buffalo in 1985, which by contrast was isolating. As an adult he moved to Rochester with his spouse. Around 2010 while his marriage was faltering, he began experimenting with queer communities in Rochester, first with the Rochester Women’s Community Chorus and then with the Trans Action Group. These groups gave him a place to explore his developing identity as a transmasculine genderqueer person. Recognizing a growing need for trans safe spaces in the community, DeLaney created the Genesee Valley Gender Variants group in 2011, which has become one of the most well attended trans groups in Rochester.

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Maur DeLaney
Community, Identity & Activism

DeLaney first attempted to find community by identifying as a lesbian. As he began to feel a disconnect with other lesbians, he joined the Trans Action Group, where he was able to develop his trans identity and his personal style of activism further.

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DeLaney describes communities in Rochester as wonderfully welcoming, and he notes that his exceptional experiences have influenced his own group. While living with his spouse and son, he began to feel dissatisfied with his life as a housewife. He tried identifying as a lesbian and joined the Rochester Women’s Community Chorus, which was his first exposure to the gay and lesbian community. However, he quickly realized that he did not share the same experiences as his lesbian friends. He began identifying as trans and joined the Trans Action Group, which functioned as a support group and activist hub for trans and gender nonconforming people. With the support of his friends from TAG, DeLaney was able to experiment with his gender, but as he tried on new pronouns and new names, he found his lesbian friends were unable to keep up. He felt a stronger connection to his friends at TAG.However, DeLaney was not attached to the political activism in which the Trans Action Group was involved. He instead used the group to meet people and explore his identity. While other members of TAG elevated the importance of civil disobedience and lobbying, DeLaney came to understand activism as creating safe spaces and basic support networks for people. Eventually, the Trans Action Group dissolved, and in the void left behind, DeLaney decided to start his own group, the Genesee Valley Gender Variants.

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Maur DeLaney
Genesee Valley Gender Variants

In September 2011, DeLaney created the Genesee Valley Gender Variants. He discusses his motivations for creating the group and reflects on why it has grown so quickly in popularity.

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After the Trans Action Group dissolved in 2011, DeLaney felt the need to create a space for gender nonconforming people to explore gender and find support through a non-judgemental community. Bunny Kramer, who organized the lesbian group LezConnect, told DeLaney about a group member who did not quite identify as a lesbian but felt they had nowhere else to go. Recognizing the immediate need for this group, DeLaney promoted the Genesee Valley Gender Variants on social media and, during the advertised meeting times, sat at a table at Equal Grounds Coffee House. For the first few weeks, the group consisted of DeLaney, his friend, and the person from LezConnect. Eventually more people heard about the group, which now regularly fills the entire coffee shop. Members are as diverse as they are numerous, with ages ranging from teens to seventies.According to DeLaney, the group has become wildly popular because it fills an often overlooked need in the community: a space where people can simply be themselves without fear of judgement. With little structure to meetings, members are able to determine what best suits their needs that specific day. Sometimes members share their experiences regarding community resources and work to improve those resources, while other times members simply play board games or share makeup tips. DeLaney believes there are countless other trans people in the Rochester area who are not yet out, and he hopes GV2 can be a place where they find support.DeLaney briefly discusses the differences and similarities between the Genesee Valley Gender Variants and the Trans Alliance of Greater Rochester. While TAGR is more structured and encourages members to talk specifically about gender-related issues, GV2 is less rigid and allows members to interact with others in a non-judgemental space.

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Maur DeLaney
Visibility

DeLaney discusses first coming out as a bisexual person. These early experiences were through external objects, such as carrying a marriage equality sign on the bus, and could be removed. He reflects on how those experiences prepared him for living in a trans body, where his queerness is visible at all times.

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DeLaney first publically identified as queer in 2005 while attending a marriage equality rally. At the time, he presented as female and was in a heterosexual marriage. He received a poster at the rally that said “Loving Couples Deserve Marriage” and carried it proudly as he rode the bus home.Later when marching in the Rochester Pride Parade, DeLaney wore a shirt that said “Bisexual Not Invisible.” Unfamiliar with being identified as bisexual in public, he initially felt embarrassed wearing the shirt, but he eventually learned how to cope with the sometimes awkward feeling of visibility.Now DeLaney’s body reflects his nonconforming gender, and he is recognizably queer regardless of the slogan on his shirt or the political sign in his hand. Without his previous experiences, he acknowledges it may have been harder to endure his blatant queerness. He compares this to confronting medical treatments as a child and then as an adult. Eventually he learned what to expect, and he came to understand that expressing his true gender is worth the risks associated with becoming visible.

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Maur DeLaney
Transparenthood

DeLaney discusses his close relationship with his son and the importance of honesty in maintaining that relationship.

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Valuing transparency and authenticity, DeLaney has always been open with this son, Aiden, about his sexuality, gender, and all other facets of his life. His son marched with him in pride parades and frequently attends Genesee Valley Gender Variant meetings, where he has developed close friendships with many other members. DeLaney recalls when his son first called him “Dad,” though he admits he still serves a maternal role and is often referred to as “Mom” as well. Returning the honesty, DeLaney’s son has been very open about his own sexuality and gender.DeLaney never made a conscious effort to explain his transition to his son. Rather they just discussed things casually as they were pertinent in their lives. DeLaney never felt the need to hide his identity from his son.

Around 2010, AIDS Rochester, a local HIV clinic, approached the Trans Alliance of Greater Rochester to assess the need in the community for trans health care. According to DeLaney, the clinic recognized that their specialized services could benefit more members of the LGBT community, and the clinic rebranded as Trillium Health.At the time of the interview in 2014, Trillium Health was a new resource for the community. While some people have reported negative experiences with the clinic, DeLaney describes Trillium as a personally supportive and positive experience, and he adds that staff are still learning how to better serve the transgender community. DeLaney emphasizes that his experience is not universal, and many in the community are opposed to LGBT specific clinics.Valuing lived experience over clinical knowledge, DeLaney has always felt more comfortable seeing female doctors, particularly when dealing with reproductive health. Although he would ideally prefer a trans male doctor, he appreciates that cis female doctors have personal and intimate experience with anatomy similar to his.

Sam Waters

Sam Waters was heavily involved in queer and trans activism while living in New York City in the 1990s. Originally identifying as a lesbian, he began his transition in 1997 but maintains roots within lesbianism. He moved to Rochester in 1999 and felt he could not identify with the relatively conservative LGBT community. Recently, he has returned to the transgender community, noting that it is far more inclusive now than fifteen years ago.

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Sam Waters was born in 1975 in Fredericksburg, VA. As a child, he expressed a masculine gender, and he did not feel pressure to be more feminine until he started middle school.He began identifying as a lesbian at the end of highschool, and he became very involved in the lesbian community during his freshman year at Smith College in 1992. He transferred to Rutgers University, where he frequently participated in activism both on campus and in New York City. During this time, he was involved in student government, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP New York), Queer Nation, the Lesbian Avengers, and various anti-war groups. Influenced by Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues, Waters began identifying as a butch lesbian in 1994, and by 1997 he began identifying as a queer transgender man. He attended Columbia University for graduate studies and began his transition. He ran American Boyz NYC, an organization for transmasculine people, from 1997 to 1999.Waters moved to Rochester late in 1999 to work for Kodak. He felt the Rochester LGBT community had little to offer a young transgender man, so he stopped identifying as queer. He has recently returned to the LGBT community through the help of social media platforms, and he eagerly notes the many differences between the modern trans community and the trans community he left in 1999.

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Sam Waters
Developing Identity

Waters discusses his identity as it evolved from lesbian to butch and then to transgender. He details the influences that Stone Butch Blues had on the lesbian community, as well as the impact that Lesbians Talk Transgender had on his personal identity.

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When he started his freshman year at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, Waters identified as a lesbian. On campus, he found freedom to explore his gender and sexuality, along with many other facets of his identity, and found community at the Lesbian Center.In 1994, when Waters was in his junior year at Rutgers University, he read Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg. He explains the significance of this book, not only to him but to the lesbian community as a whole. This book reintroduced butch and femme dynamics to the lesbian community and encouraged women to experiment with gender expression rather than defaulting to androgyny. Waters proudly identified as butch, noting that is masculinity is still rooted in butch ideals.During his senior year of college, Waters went on a trip to Montreal and bought Lesbians Talk Transgender from a queer bookstore with the last of his money. After reading the book, he knew “something significant had just shifted.”

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Sam Waters
Medical Transition

Waters discusses the medical process of transitioning, which he began by seeing a therapist. He received hormones from a questionable doctor in New York City before he was able to convince a nurse practitioner at Columbia University’s student health center to learn transition care.

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Waters describes the still complex but comparatively straightforward process of undergoing medical transitioning. This process began with seeing a gender therapist, receiving a recommendation for hormones, beginning hormones, and then getting surgery. He also details the “Real Life Test,” which was required under the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care. When Waters began his medical transition in 1997, most progressive gender therapists were not requiring the “Real Life Test,” and Waters himself was never subjected to it. He adds that at the age of 21, he was extremely young to begin his medical transition. This is in stark contrast to contemporary trans culture where people under the age of 18 are commonly beginning to transition.In March of 1998, Waters began hormone therapy. There was only one doctor in New York City who prescribed hormones to trans men, and the doctor, recognizing his exclusivity, took financial advantage of his patients. Waters found a nurse practitioner at the student health center at Columbia University who was willing to research trans care and provide him with prescriptions and injections. Waters notes that the nurse practitioner would temporarily withhold his hormones until he agreed to routine procedures such as pap smears

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Sam Waters
Direct Action & Involvement

While in college, Waters attended numerous rallies and became involved in direct action organizations including the Lesbian Avengers, The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), and Queer Nation. In 1997, he ran American Boyz NYC.

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During his junior year at Rutgers University, Waters got involved in Lesbians and Bisexuals in Action (LABIA) and was introduced to leftist grassroots activism. While the term “intersectionality” was not widely used at the time, many of the demonstrations he attended addressed overlapping systems of oppression and involved different minority groups working together toward a common goal. On campus he was involved in anti-war activism, and in New York City, he was occasionally involved with the Lesbian Avengers, ACT UP, and Queer Nation.Waters attended Columbia University in New York City for graduate school, which he states was good for activism but bad for academics. He attempted to get involved with Transexual Menace, but the organization was mostly operational from Washington, D.C. Instead he aligned himself with American Boyz NYC, an organization for transmasculine people, and ran the chapter from 1997 to 1999.

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Sam Waters
True Spirit Conference

Waters recalled attending the True Spirit Conference and other transmasculine conferences in the late 1990s.

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While running the NYC chapter of American Boyz in the late 1990s, Waters attended the True Spirit Conference in Baltimore. He compared this conference, created specifically for transgender men, to the Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference. While the Philadelphia Trans-Health Fair annually attracts thousands of participants, the True Spirit Conference hosted less than 400 people, which at the time was a large crowd.In 1997, before the True Spirit Conferences, Waters attended a conference for transgender men in Boston, which he believes to be the first national convention of trans men in the United States. Desperately seeking a large community, transgender men came from across the United States. At this conference, Waters first saw men who had scars from gender-affirming surgeries and was able to hear their experiences.

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Sam Waters
Butch / FTM Border Wars

In an article published in the August 1998 issue of OUT Magazine, Waters described the complicated relationship between trans men and butch lesbians. This article was part of a larger conversation going on in the lesbian community as women tried to understand why so many butches were beginning to transition.

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Waters was interviewed by Michelangelo Signorile for an article published in the August 1998 issue of OUT Magazine, titled Snakes and Snails and Puppy-dogs’ Tails. The article was framed as a discussion between trans men and butch lesbians wherein they examined the differences and similarities between the two identities, and they debated where trans men belong in relationship to the lesbian community.Due to increased availability of information as the internet emerged in the 1990s, a large number of butch lesbians in 1990s were beginning to transition and live as men. Some lesbians separatists were put on edge, fearing that the community would lose its strength after all the butch lesbians abandoned womanhood. Lesbians needed to figure out what transgender men meant for the future of their community.Waters believes this discussion was started by Stone Butch Blues, which, as mentioned before, was an extremely influential book in the lesbian community. This conversation continues today in the form of the transmasculine spectrum, which allows people who were assigned female at birth to express masculinity in a multitude of ways and is not limited to the binary categories of woman and transman. As Waters notes, identities within the queer community are now a lot broader than lesbian and gay.

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Sam Waters
Pushed Out

Waters discusses feeling pushed out of the queer community after transitioning and moving to Rochester. He has very recently become involved in the community again, finding it has transformed and become more inclusive of transgender people.

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Waters felt he was pushed out of the queer community shortly after he began transitioning, which left him feeling alienated from the people he called his family. Instead of feeling explicitly pressured to leave, he simply felt there was no place for him. Lesbian spaces he left in New York City did not welcome men, regardless of their history, and the LGB community he found in Rochester was clueless when it came to transgender people. Waters found the Rochester Trans Group and attended a few meetings, but he felt that the group primarily catered to the needs of middle-aged, closeted trans women. As a young trans man, he was unable to find community there. With nothing available locally and internet communities still slowly developing, Waters simply ended his involvement in the queer world.Recently, Waters has returned to the queer community. He found that over the past decade, Rochester’s LGBT community has transformed into more of an inclusive community. Now, rather than attempting to restrict the community to four distinct categories, more people are recognizing and embracing a community of diverse identities. Waters is excited to become involved again.

Shauna O'Toole

Shauna O’Toole has been one of the most visible members of the Rochester transgender community since being publicly outed on local news channels in 2007. During her interview, O’Toole discusses early internet resource for transgender women, coming out as a high school science teacher, and her relationship with her children.

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Shauna O’Toole was born in 1957 to an upper-middle class family in Central New York. She was aware of her feminine gender identity from a very early age. Her mother caught her stealing a dress at the age of five and reprimanded her so sternly that O’Toole did not admit her urges for another forty years.As an adult, O’Toole experienced a lifetime worth of adventures while working in various scientific fields, including meteorology and engineering. During this time she would occasionally dress in feminine clothing while she was alone in laboratories. In 1990, she searched the early internet for transgender resources and found Susans.org, an online forum for transgender women. At a neighborhood Halloween party in 2003, O’Toole dressed as a passable woman and refers to the experience as a major turning point in her life. She joined Susans.org after that party, started seeing a gender therapist, and began a transition journal. She later published this journal as a memoir titled You Can’t Shave in a Minimart Bathroom.O’Toole’s transition ruined her relationship with her wife and daughter, led her to lose her job as a high school science teacher, and caused major depressive episodes within her life. Despite these hardships, O’Toole has never looked back. Now working for the LGBTQ Center of the Finger Lakes, she continues to speak out about transgender issues and organizes regular events in Rochester to raise awareness of transgender issues.

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Shauna O'Toole
Finding Community Online

O’Toole describes first finding a transgender community in 1990 through Susans.org, an early internet forum for crossdressers and trans women. She briefly reflects on the impact of this online community and resources, and she defines terms in use at the time.

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In 1990, O’Toole was desperate to know she was not the only person in the world who experienced gender dysphoria. She turned to the newly available internet and, fearing that her wife might catch her, she cautiously searched Yahoo for other people. She found Susans.org, an early internet site and forum for crossdressers and transgender women. O’Toole was astonished by how many people were members of Susans.org, and it quickly became her lifeline when no other resources were available to her. Even while her life became busier with work and children, she reserved time to visit Susans.org and connect with the only community she could.O’Toole briefly describes the terminology used online at the time. “Transgender” was used as a synonym for crossdresser. “Transsexual” referred to people who wanted to change their sex, while “transexual” was a word used primarily by the porn industry.

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Shauna O'Toole
Halloween 2003

In great detail, O’Toole tells the story of going to a Halloween party dressed as a passable woman. She describes this moment as a turning point in her life, and ultimately, the acceptance she found at the party convinced her to take the next step in her transition.

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Throughout this retelling, O’Toole uses the metaphor of Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde to describe the interactions between her conflicting masculine persona and her feminine identity. The neighborhood Halloween party was coming up, and O’Toole made a resolution to dress as a passable woman at the party. To prepare, she ordered a skirt, sweater, and heels, which were sent to her secret P.O. Box, and she made an appointment with Sue at Sue’s Finishing Touch Salon to get her hair, nails and makeup done. When she first saw herself dressed and made up as a woman for the first time, O’Toole felt panicked and overcome with internalized transphobia. But she quickly was able to accept her identity and her appearance.At the party, O’Toole was immediately embraced as a woman, which felt terrifying but liberating. The next day, on November 1st, O’Toole began her transition journal, which would eventually become her book You Can’t Shave in a Minimart Bathroom.

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Shauna O'Toole
Medical Interactions

O’Toole recounts beginning her medical transition in late 2005. She was the first transgender patient her doctor had encountered, but she was able to receive transition care from the practice. Working with a gender therapist in Auburn, NY, O’Toole began to identify herself within a community of women.

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At the recommendation of several people on Susans.org, O’Toole went to her primary care physician in late 2005 to begin her medical transition. O’Toole brought a copy of the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care to the appointment, and her doctor, who had never cared for a transgender patient before, agreed to provide hormone replacement therapy and blood tests to aid in her transition.O’Toole began seeing Claire Brobrycki, a therapist working Auburn, NY, and during her treatment engaged in difficult conversations that were both painful and liberating. One of her first assignments with Brobrycki involved writing a list of things that contributed to womanhood. O’Toole noticed that as she was writing, she went from using third person perspective to talk about women to using first person plural perspective. Through the assignment, she began to identify herself as a woman like any other.

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Shauna O'Toole
Coming Out in Sodus

In June of 2007, O’Toole was outed publicly when the local news ran the headline “Sodus Teacher to Change Sex.” She discusses her reactions to the malicious incident and the irreparable damage it caused.

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O’Toole, working as a science teacher at Sodus High School, came out in privacy to her administration and union in June of 2007. She was planning to begin her transition and return for the 2007-2008 academic year as Ms. O’Toole. However, members of Sodus faculty, stating that they were acting to protect the children, leaked the information to the local news, and on June 21st 2007, Channel 10 News ran several segments with the headline “Sodus Teacher to Change Sex.” Although the news did not include O’Toole’s name, everyone in Sodus and the surrounding area knew the segment was about her.O’Toole’s children found out through social media before she had a chance to tell them herself. Her daughter was furious that O’Toole had seemingly come out to everyone in town before she had come out to her own family, and O’Toole’s relationship with her daughter has been damaged since. However, she maintains a very close bond with her son.

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Shauna O'Toole
Transparenthood

O’Toole briefly describes her relationship with her son, who always has been and will continue to be her strongest ally.

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Although O’Toole’s transition severely damaged her relationship with her daughter, she has maintained an extremely close relationship with her son. In the summer of 2008, O’Toole dressed as a woman for the first time with her son, and her son, who was then twelve years old, embraced her identity and simply could not understand why everyone else was upset with her transition. Years later, O’Toole’s son reflected on her feminine parenting style, and he showed an understanding of her gender identity even before she had come out to him.

Empty Closet Profiles

While many voices in the transgender community have been lost, a few have been preserved in print. The following people were not able to be reached for an interview but their contributions to the transgender community of Rochester have been documented and archived through The Empty Closet, Rochester’s LGBT newspaper. While details about these people are scarce, their impact on the community should not be overlooked.The following people identified as transexual women and made themselves visible in the 1970s. During this decade when the gay rights was still a fledgling movement, these women demanded and were given space in areas dominated by gay men and lesbians.

Empty Closet Profiles
Sandra Pierce

Sandra Pierce organized the first social and support group for transexual women and crossdressers in Rochester, named Transexuals and Transvestites Unite!

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Sandra Pierce, born around 1951, was a transexual woman living in Rochester, NY. She organized Transexuals and Transvestites Unite! in September 1974. This group functioned as a support and social group for transexual women and crossdressers and was the first group of its kind in Rochester.On February 16th 1975, the Gay Brotherhood of Rochester invited Pierce to speak in a forum discussing transvestism and transexualism.In March 1975, Pierce published a letter in The Empty Closet. In the letter, Pierce poetically discussed her life-long struggle with gender dysphoria. She described a history of depression and suicidal thoughts, noting that she will not “give in as long as [she has] hope.” In the letter Pierce also alluded to feeling dehumanized by transphobic people, and she expressed her frustration with medical providers. She understood transphobia as ignorance and fear, but she refused to let transphobia hold her back from living as a woman. This is the last time Pierce is documented in the archives.

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Empty Closet Profiles
Peggy

Peggy, a transexual lesbian, was a featured speaker at a Gay Liberation Front meeting at the University of Rochester in 1973. She hoped to bring visibility to transexual people and to dispel common myths.

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Peggy was a transexual lesbian living in Rochester NY. She was born around 1920 and married in 1942, raising four children with her wife. She transitioned later in her life and underwent reassignment surgery.In June 1973, Peggy, age 52, was a featured speaker at a Gay Liberation Front meeting, hoping to bring light to the challenges faced by transexual people. At the meeting, she captivated members in attendance. Peggy described herself as a life-long practicing lesbian during her talk, dispelling gay men’s common misconception that transexual people were homosexuals that wanted to become heterosexual. One member in attendance expected to see a “freak show,” though he claimed he was not disappointed to be proved wrong by Peggy’s feminine and youthful appearance. After the meeting, Peggy continued discussion on Green Thursdays, a gay radio show in Rochester.

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Empty Closet Profiles
Leah Wilder

Leah Wilder was a pioneer in the early trans community of Rochester. Relying on sex work and selling drugs to support herself financially, she faced criminal charges frequently. In 1974, she was stabbed to death in her home.

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Wilder, born in 1941, was a transexual woman living in Rochester, NY. She was described as a pioneer who helped a half dozen other transexual people gain support and resources for their transition. Wilder worked at bars, sold drugs, and participated in sex work in order to fund her transition. As a result, she faced criminal drug and sex-related charges frequently. In September of 1974, Wilder, wearing a mini skirt to her court hearing, plead guilty to charges of selling drugs. Robert Napier, Wilder’s lawyer, successfully argued that Wilder faced psychological trauma due to her gender dysphoria and recommended that the judge drop the charges against Wilder. Judge Celli agreed that Wilder’s gender dysphoria may have caused her involvement with drugs, and Judge Celli sentenced Wilder to five years of probation. On December 13th 1974, Peter Secore, age 19, stabbed Wilder, age 33, to death in their home at 31 Comfort St in Rochester. Secore, convicted of first-degree manslaughter, claimed that he was repulsing Wilder’s sexual advances, though a witness claimed that Secore planned the murder.Leah Wilder during her lifetime was also known as Leah Gordon, Gordon Boerman, and Lee Gordon.

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Empty Closet Profiles
Karen

Karen was the subject of an interview featured in The Democrat and Chronicle in June 1975. In the article, she discusses coming to terms with her gender identity and beginning her medical transition.

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Karen*, born around 1943, was a Swedish-American transexual woman living in Rochester, NY. In June 1975, Linda Hansen wrote and published an article about Karen in The Democrat and Chronicle.Karen became aware of transexualism in 1959, when she was fifteen years old. Her family doctor recommended conversion therapy techniques, including prescribing her large doses of testosterone and extensive psychotherapy. Her religious beliefs conflicted with her identity. She initially felt guilty for wanting to change the body God gave her, but eventually she came to see transexualism as an illness requiring treatment like any other. She compared transsexualism to a birth defect.Karen spent seven years trying to live as a gay man. During this time, she experimented with her gender expression by being “the female half in the homosexual pair,” and later she performed as a female impersonator. She describes her experiences as a female impersonator as “the turning point” when she began seriously considering sexual reassignment surgery. As of 1975, Karen has undergone hormone replacement therapy, electrolysis, and psychological testing. At the time of the interview, she was planning on going to Casablanca for sexual reassignment surgery. She estimated that her hormones and electrolysis treatments cost her $50/week, and surgery would cost around $4,000. She considered female clothing an extra expense. *Karen is a pseudonym used to maintain anonymity of the person.

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Empty Closet Profiles
Renee Joy Hughson

Renee Joy Hughson wrote a regular column in The Empty Closet between 1976 and 1977 in which she discussed the challenges she faced as a transexual woman in Rochester.

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Renee Joy Hughson was raised in rural western New York and, believing her transition would be a burden to her friends and family, moved to Rochester as a young adult. She came to the city with a mission to find a job, see a therapist, and begin her life as a woman. She was forced to work as a man to fund her hormone treatments and surgeries, noting this was a “necessary compromise.” In October 1976, she attended a support group for transexual people and transvestites organized by the Gay Brotherhood of Rochester and continued to participate in the group.Hughson wrote a regular column in the Empty Closet between 1976 and 1977 which was originally titled Frankenstein in Drag and later renamed Over the Rainbow. The original title was inspired by a doctor’s visit regarding hormone treatments, when a doctor made her feel that she would always look like a drag queen or a monster. After months of complaints from readers who felt the title was offensive, Hughson renamed the column Over the Rainbow. She was inspired to continue her transition by the lyrics from the popular song Somewhere Over the Rainbow, particularly the line “Why, oh why, can’t I?”Hughson began the column in The Empty Closet as a way to raise awareness about the issues facing transexual people, to dispel harmful misconceptions that were being perpetuated by straight and gay people, and to empower other transexual people to live authentically. She encouraged readers to reach out to her, either through direct communication or by attending the support group. She felt it was her personal obligation to educate people through writing.Throughout the years that this column was published, Hughson discussed a range of topics. In one column, she described using humor as a coping mechanism for encountering transphobia. In the early months, she wrote frequently about her isolation from her friends and family, as well as her frustration with her inability to “pass” as a cisgender woman in public. In her later writings, Hughson is less concerned with assimilating to feminine stereotypes and instead expresses anger at the amount of gender policing she faces, encouraging transexual people to be critical of gender classifications. Throughout the publication of the column, Hughson preached universal love and acceptance, stating “everyone needs someone and we all need everyone.”

Topics

Finding Community

Transitioning in Workplace

Health Care

Political Involvement

Transparenthood

Visibility

Finding Community

This section shows ways in which transgender people fostered connections with people who shared their experiences.In the 1980s, resources were limited to secretive support groups located in Rochester and in other cities. Those living in rural areas relied on internet forums, which began developing in the 1990s. Transmasculine people in particular often found the trans community through first exploring lesbianism. The transgender community and queer community of Rochester has become more inclusive and diverse in recent years.

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Finding Community
Pam Barres

Barres recounts the process of finding other transsexual women and groups in the Rochester area. She fondly describes her first experience attending the Crossdresser’s Network (also know as CD Network) group in Rochester.

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Around 1986, Barres confided her growing gender dysphoria with her wife. She had heard about a group for crossdressers, and she serendipitously found an advertisement for a crossdressing group in the personals section of the newspaper. She describes her hesitation to join the group, and by the time she finally built up the courage to call the number in the ad, it had been disconnected. Later in 1989, Barres’ therapist, Pamela Walters, introduced her to Reg Phillips, who became the first transsexual person Barres ever met. Phillips introduced Barres to the group she had been looking for. This group was originally known as Transvestites Anonymous, but the members changed the name to the Crossdresser’s Network (known as CD Network).Barres fondly recounts getting ready for her first meeting with the group, which included purchasing a “god-awful” wig and having her makeup done by a drag queen. She notes that the group would often go to lesbian bars after meetings, particularly Rosie’s on Monroe Ave.

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Finding Community
JoAnne Metzler

In 1989, Metzler joined the CD Network, where she met Pam Barres. Despite the support she received from her friends in the group, she was not ready to come out to her wife and end her marriage. Terrified, she vanished from the community in 1995.

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In the late 1980s, Metzler began feeling the desire to crossdress again after suppressing her urges since 1974. Her therapist at the time recommended that she join the CD Network. Though the group was very secretive and relied on anonymity, the CD Network hosted regular meetings along with events and dinners. In October 1991, Metzler attended Autumn Accord, a crossdressing event in Syracuse, where she became very close friends with Pam Barres. < /br> Metzler continued making connections in the community and progress in her therapy appointments. In 1995, her therapist suggested that Metzler show her wife photographs of her dressed as a woman. Knowing that would end her marriage, Metzler refused and abruptly terminated her involvement in the CD Network and the transgender community. Metzler returned to the community and began transitioning after experiencing suicidal thoughts again in 1997.

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Finding Community
Shauna O'Toole

O’Toole describes first finding a transgender community in 1990 through Susans.org, an early internet forum for crossdressers and trans women. She briefly reflects on the impact of this online community and resources, and she defines terms in use at the time.

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In 1990, O’Toole was desperate to know she was not the only person in the world who experienced gender dysphoria. She turned to the newly available internet and, fearing that her wife might catch her, she cautiously searched Yahoo for other people. She found Susans.org, an early internet site and forum for crossdressers and transgender women. O’Toole was astonished by how many people were members of Susans.org, and it quickly became her lifeline when no other resources were available to her. Even while her life became busier with work and children, she reserved time to visit Susans.org and connect with the only community she could.O’Toole briefly describes the terminology used online at the time. “Transgender” was used as a synonym for crossdresser. “Transsexual” referred to people who wanted to change their sex, while “transexual” was a word used primarily by the porn industry.

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Finding Community
Maur Delaney

DeLaney first attempted to find community by identifying as a lesbian. As he began to feel a disconnect with other lesbians, he joined the Trans Action Group, where he was able to develop his trans identity and his personal style of activism further.

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DeLaney describes communities in Rochester as wonderfully welcoming, and he notes that his exceptional experiences have influenced his own group. While living with his spouse and son, he began to feel dissatisfied with his life as a housewife. He tried identifying as a lesbian and joined the Rochester Women’s Community Chorus, which was his first exposure to the gay and lesbian community. However, he quickly realized that he did not share the same experiences as his lesbian friends. He began identifying as trans and joined the Trans Action Group, which functioned as a support group and activist hub for trans and gender nonconforming people. With the support of his friends from TAG, DeLaney was able to experiment with his gender, but as he tried on new pronouns and new names, he found his lesbian friends were unable to keep up. He felt a stronger connection to his friends at TAG.However, DeLaney was not attached to the political activism in which the Trans Action Group was involved. He instead used the group to meet people and explore his identity. While other members of TAG elevated the importance of civil disobedience and lobbying, DeLaney came to understand activism as creating safe spaces and basic support networks for people. Eventually, the Trans Action Group dissolved, and in the void left behind, DeLaney decided to start his own group, the Genesee Valley Gender Variants.

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Finding Community
Sam Waters

Waters discusses feeling pushed out of the queer community after transitioning and moving to Rochester. He has very recently become involved in the community again, finding it has transformed and become more inclusive of transgender people.

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Waters felt he was pushed out of the queer community shortly after he began transitioning, which left him feeling alienated from the people he called his family. Instead of feeling explicitly pressured to leave, he simply felt there was no place for him. Lesbian spaces he left in New York City did not welcome men, regardless of their history, and the LGB community he found in Rochester was clueless when it came to transgender people. Waters found the Rochester Trans Group and attended a few meetings, but he felt that the group primarily catered to the needs of middle-aged, closeted trans women. As a young trans man, he was unable to find community there. With nothing available locally and internet communities still slowly developing, Waters simply ended his involvement in the queer world.Recently, Waters has returned to the queer community. He found that over the past decade, Rochester’s LGBT community has transformed into more of an inclusive community. Now, rather than attempting to restrict the community to four distinct categories, more people are recognizing and embracing a community of diverse identities. Waters is excited to become involved again.

Transitioning in Workplace

The following clips illustrate the experiences of three transgender women as they transitioned at work.

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Transitioning in Workplace
Karen Anne Bills

After transitioning at her workplace, Bills recounts being set up to fail by management.

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In the mid 1990s, Bills transitioned in her workplace at Xerox. As a result of her transition, she was moved to a different department, along with a Chinese man and a Hispanic woman, where she was given impossible work assignments. If she failed to complete her job, she would be fired for incompetence. Recognizing the intentional maltreatment, Bills advocated for herself and her coworkers, and eventually they were returned to their original departments. Bills adds that she also was not allowed to use the women’s restroom after she transitioned.

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Transitioning in Workplace
Joanne Metzler

Metzler discusses the process of transitioning at Nixon Peabody, beginning with a life saving decision in August of 1999 and ending with her first day at work as JoAnne in February 2000.

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Metzler vividly recalls August 1st 1999, when the stress of living a double life became too much to bear and she called her friend Marie in the midst of an emotional breakdown. After talking with Marie, who she had met through the CD Network, Metzler recognized that she needed to transition in her workplace. Though she had been contemplating coming out at work since 1992, she never went through with her plan due to overwhelming fear that she would lose her job, as she knew other transgender women had.In August of 1999, she came out to her Human Resources representative. After deliberating with management and other resources, the representative assured Metzler that the company supported her decision to transition on the job. Metzler personally came out to two people each day in the following weeks, attempting to prevent any rumors from spreading, and in preparation of her transition, Metzler’s therapist, Pam Walter, conducted several sensitivity trainings within the company. Throughout this process Metzler was met primarily with support from her coworkers. However, a small group of women were concerned about Metzler using female assigned bathrooms in the building. In the stated interest of cis womens’ safety, a reasoning she deplores, Metzler was forced to use a unisex bathroom in the parking garage twelve floors below her office.For the first time on February 29th, 2000, Metzler, despite immense trepidation, came to work as JoAnne.

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Transitioning in Workplace
Shauna O'Toole

In June of 2007, O’Toole was outed publicly when the local news ran the headline “Sodus Teacher to Change Sex.” She discusses her reactions to the malicious incident and the irreparable damage it caused.

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O’Toole, working as a science teacher at Sodus High School, came out in privacy to her administration and union in June of 2007. She was planning to begin her transition and return for the 2007-2008 academic year as Ms. O’Toole. However, members of Sodus faculty, stating that they were acting to protect the children, leaked the information to the local news, and on June 21st 2007, Channel 10 News ran several segments with the headline “Sodus Teacher to Change Sex.” Although the news did not include O’Toole’s name, everyone in Sodus and the surrounding area knew the segment was about her.O’Toole’s children found out through social media before she had a chance to tell them herself. Her daughter was furious that O’Toole had seemingly come out to everyone in town before she had come out to her own family, and O’Toole’s relationship with her daughter has been damaged since. However, she maintains a very close bond with her son.

Health Care

Because medical intervention is often seen as a necessary part of transitioning, transgender people have prioritized both physical and mental health care.In this section, narrators recounted their experiences with conversion therapy and psychological testing, both processes which have been phased out of modern transgender treatment. Many people reported having to educate their doctors to receive proper treatment while others were simply refused service by doctors due to their gender identity. In recent years, transition-related health care has become significantly more accessible.

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Health Care
Pam Barres

Barres discusses her interactions with psychiatrists and mental health counsellors. Prior to 1989, mental health professionals used conversion therapy techniques, which promised to “break” her crossdressing habits. In 1989, Barres began seeing a therapist who finally taught her to embrace her transsexualism.This clip is separated into three sections.

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As Barres got older, she developed digestive issues related to mental and emotional stress. After a series of medical tests that did not yield any results, she decided to see Dr. Edelson, a therapist in Rochester. Edelson theorized that Barres wanted to emulate women because she wanted to prove she was better than a woman. Edelson told Barres to stop crossdressing and promised his treatments would “break it.”In the late 1980s, Barres’ stress-related stomach issues got worse, and she began seeing Dr. Robert Horn. Horn urged Barres to quit crossdressing entirely, and through treatment he attempted to convince Barres that it was “great being a guy.”Finally, in January of 1989, Barres began seeing Pamela Walter. Walter encouraged Barres to come to her appointments dressed as a woman. She also recommended books to Barres relating to transsexualism. Barres underwent psychological testing at the University of Rochester Medical Center, a process which she now belittles, and medical professionals declared her a “certified transsexual.”

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Health Care
Joanne Metzler

At the recommendation of her therapist, Metzler underwent psychological testing before she was able to begin hormone replacement therapy in 1999. In this clip, she describes the “miserable” psychoanalytical evaluations.

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In 1999, Pam Walter, Metzler’s therapist, recommended that Metzler undergo psychological testing, as she had done twenty five years earlier. Metzler met with Dr. Goldstein for a series of psychoanalytical tests, which included math evaluations, Rorschach tests, and other activities. Describing the process as “miserable,” Metzler recalled that the tests attempted to identify personality traits that aligned with gender stereotypes. For example, Dr. Goldstein determined that Metzler was indeed more feminine because her personality was categorized as passive. Based on the analysis from the neurologist, Metzler began hormone replacement therapy on November 5th, 1999, an event which she recalls in detail.

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Health Care
Sam Waters

Waters discusses the medical process of transitioning, which he began by seeing a therapist. He received hormones from a questionable doctor in New York City before he was able to convince a nurse practitioner at Columbia University’s student health center to learn transition care.

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Waters describes the still complex but comparatively straightforward process of undergoing medical transitioning. This process began with seeing a gender therapist, receiving a recommendation for hormones, beginning hormones, and then getting surgery. He also details the “Real Life Test,” which was required under the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care. When Waters began his medical transition in 1997, most progressive gender therapists were not requiring the “Real Life Test,” and Waters himself was never subjected to it. He adds that at the age of 21, he was extremely young to begin his medical transition. This is in stark contrast to contemporary trans culture where people under the age of 18 are commonly beginning to transition.In March of 1998, Waters began hormone therapy. There was only one doctor in New York City who prescribed hormones to trans men, and the doctor, recognizing his exclusivity, took financial advantage of his patients. Waters found a nurse practitioner at the student health center at Columbia University who was willing to research trans care and provide him with prescriptions and injections. Waters notes that the nurse practitioner would temporarily withhold his hormones until he agreed to routine procedures such as pap smears

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Health Care
Karen Anne Bills

Bills describes decades’ worth of terrible experiences with doctors who were unfamiliar with transition care and refused to treat her.

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In 1999, Bills began transition care with Dr. Diego Cahn-Hidalgo in Rochester. Due to lack of insurance and other issues, she had to leave his supportive practice. In the coming years, Bills struggled through inadequate medical treatment and several doctors who openly discriminated against her due to her gender identity. She discusses her experiences with doctors who refused to touch her or write her prescriptions.

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Health Care
Karen Anne Bills

After nearly twenty years of poor treatment from doctors, Bills began seeing Dr. William Valenti at Trillium Health in 2014, and she says it changed her world.

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After hearing about Dr. William Valenti from a friend, Bills found his profile on Facebook and they developed a personal relationship with him immediately, even before she had a scheduled appointment with him. This friendship became stronger when Bills met Valenti in person at Trillium Health. During the appointment, they mostly talked and shared stories. Bills describes the positive treatment she has received from the entire staff at Trillium Health and notes that her prescriptions are always filled quickly and with ease. In addition to medical care, she has received legal aid from Trillium Health to begin the process of changing the gender markers on her state ID and her birth certificate.

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Health Care
Shauna O'Toole

O’Toole recounts beginning her medical transition in late 2005. She was the first transgender patient her doctor had encountered, but she was able to receive transition care from the practice. Working with a gender therapist in Auburn, NY, O’Toole began to identify herself within a community of women.

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At the recommendation of several people on Susans.org, O’Toole went to her primary care physician in late 2005 to begin her medical transition. O’Toole brought a copy of the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care to the appointment, and her doctor, who had never cared for a transgender patient before, agreed to provide hormone replacement therapy and blood tests to aid in her transition.O’Toole began seeing Claire Brobrycki, a therapist working Auburn, NY, and during her treatment engaged in difficult conversations that were both painful and liberating. One of her first assignments with Brobrycki involved writing a list of things that contributed to womanhood. O’Toole noticed that as she was writing, she went from using third person perspective to talk about women to using first person plural perspective. Through the assignment, she began to identify herself as a woman like any other.

Around 2010, AIDS Rochester, a local HIV clinic, approached the Trans Alliance of Greater Rochester to assess the need in the community for trans health care. According to DeLaney, the clinic recognized that their specialized services could benefit more members of the LGBT community, and the clinic rebranded as Trillium Health.At the time of the interview in 2014, Trillium Health was a new resource for the community. While some people have reported negative experiences with the clinic, DeLaney describes Trillium as a personally supportive and positive experience, and he adds that staff are still learning how to better serve the transgender community. DeLaney emphasizes that his experience is not universal, and many in the community are opposed to LGBT specific clinics.Valuing lived experience over clinical knowledge, DeLaney has always felt more comfortable seeing female doctors, particularly when dealing with reproductive health. Although he would ideally prefer a trans male doctor, he appreciates that cis female doctors have personal and intimate experience with anatomy similar to his.

Political Involvement

In this section, narrators discuss their involvement in political activism as well as their opinions on LGBT rights legislation.

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Political Involvement
Karen Anne Bills

Bills describes the hostility between the gay community and the trans community, specifically referencing the exclusion of trans rights in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

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After marriage equality was passed in New York, gay activism waned despite struggles still faced by the transgender community. Bills refers to the recent rise in transgender visibility as simply 'this year’s theme” and asserts that it is “too little too late.'Bills describes her frustration with the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a contentious piece of legislation which would grant employment protections to the LGBT community on the basis of sexual orientation. As Bills notes, one draft of ENDA explicitly included protections on the basis of gender identity and expression, which would have served to protect the transgender community, but politicians reduced the legislation to a bathroom issue, arguing that transgender people should not be allowed to use public bathrooms. In order to pass the legislation, protections for gender identity and expression were removed, at the expense of the trans community. The gay community praised this draft and supported it. Bills remains bitter about this political betrayal, saying they 'wanted it so bad, [they] forgot about us.'

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Political Involvement
JoAnne Metzler

Beginning in 2007, Metzler, accompanied by other members of the trans community, took an annual trip to Albany, NY to participate in Lobby Day (later renamed Equality & Justice Day) with the Empire State Pride Agenda. Metzler made the trek to lobby for the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA). This legislation adds “gender expression” to the existing New York non-discrimination laws, effectively protecting transgender and gender non-conforming New Yorkers from discrimination in employment, housing, and in other situations. The passage of GENDA has been a major point of LGBT activism in the past decade.Metzler fears that activism will significantly decrease following the passage of GENDA, citing a similar decline in political involvement after New York passed marriage equality. Following the legislative victory, many LGBT non-profits lost donations from wealthy gay men whose primary interest was securing marriage rights. While she recognizes that there are other transgender issues not covered by GENDA, Metzler admits that she herself is not likely to travel to Albany regularly if GENDA passes, as she will have achieved her primary goal.In October 2015, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced an executive order which would add “gender expression” to existing New York non-discrimination laws. This executive order went into effect in January 2016.

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Political Involvement
Sam Waters

While in college, Waters attended numerous rallies and became involved in direct action organizations including the Lesbian Avengers, The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), and Queer Nation. In 1997, he ran American Boyz NYC.

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During his junior year at Rutgers University, Waters got involved in Lesbians and Bisexuals in Action (LABIA) and was introduced to leftist grassroots activism. While the term “intersectionality” was not widely used at the time, many of the demonstrations he attended addressed overlapping systems of oppression and involved different minority groups working together toward a common goal. On campus he was involved in anti-war activism, and in New York City, he was occasionally involved with the Lesbian Avengers, ACT UP, and Queer Nation.Waters attended Columbia University in New York City for graduate school, which he states was good for activism but bad for academics. He attempted to get involved with Transexual Menace, but the organization was mostly operational from Washington, D.C. Instead he aligned himself with American Boyz NYC, an organization for transmasculine people, and ran the chapter from 1997 to 1999.

Transparenthood

In this section, two transgender narrators describe their relationship with their children and the impact that their transition had on that relationship.

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Transparenthood
Maur Delaney

DeLaney discusses his close relationship with his son and the importance of honesty in maintaining that relationship.

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Valuing transparency and authenticity, DeLaney has always been open with this son, Aiden, about his sexuality, gender, and all other facets of his life. His son marched with him in pride parades and frequently attends Genesee Valley Gender Variant meetings, where he has developed close friendships with many other members. DeLaney recalls when his son first called him “Dad,” though he admits he still serves a maternal role and is often referred to as “Mom” as well. Returning the honesty, DeLaney’s son has been very open about his own sexuality and gender.DeLaney never made a conscious effort to explain his transition to his son. Rather they just discussed things casually as they were pertinent in their lives. DeLaney never felt the need to hide his identity from his son.

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Transparenthood
Shauna O'Toole

O’Toole briefly describes her relationship with her son, who always has been and will continue to be her strongest ally.

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Although O’Toole’s transition severely damaged her relationship with her daughter, she has maintained an extremely close relationship with her son. In the summer of 2008, O’Toole dressed as a woman for the first time with her son, and her son, who was then twelve years old, embraced her identity and simply could not understand why everyone else was upset with her transition. Years later, O’Toole’s son reflected on her feminine parenting style, and he showed an understanding of her gender identity even before she had come out to him.

Visibility

This section explores the connections between visibility, representation, and acceptance.Many transgender people have prioritized making their experiences and struggles well-known. While this process can encourage acceptance of trans identities, it can also put gender nonconforming people at risk of violence. Very recently, transgender people, particularly transgender women, have been more visible than ever.

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Visibility
JoAnne Metzler

Reflecting on the past two decades of involvement in the trans community, Metzler identifies visibility as her top priority. She describes struggles shared by every community member she met since 1997 and argues that visibility for trans people is vital.

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Metzler begins by referencing a quote by Gandhi, “You must make the injustice visible.” Visibility has always been Metzler’s top priority, inspiring her to write about trans issues in the Empty Closet newspaper every month for nearly two decades. In 1997, she created an eight foot wide banner from vinyl window shades that read “Transgendered and Proud.” The work she has done for the community has always been focused on recognition.Since the beginning of her involvement in the community since 1997, Metzler found two key experiences that have been shared by every trans person she has known, regardless of their age. First, everyone felt deep and lasting shame associated with their gender, though they could not identify the source, and they had to keep it secret. Secondly, everyone thought they were “the only one” to feel this way. While describing the experience of meeting another trans person for the first time, Metzler became emotional, and she asserted that this ubiquitous isolation is why greater visibility and support groups are vital for the wellbeing of trans people.

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Visibility
Maur DeLaney

DeLaney discusses first coming out as a bisexual person. These early experiences were through external objects, such as carrying a marriage equality sign on the bus, and could be removed. He reflects on how those experiences prepared him for living in a trans body, where his queerness is visible at all times.

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DeLaney first publically identified as queer in 2005 while attending a marriage equality rally. At the time, he presented as female and was in a heterosexual marriage. He received a poster at the rally that said “Loving Couples Deserve Marriage” and carried it proudly as he rode the bus home.Later when marching in the Rochester Pride Parade, DeLaney wore a shirt that said “Bisexual Not Invisible.” Unfamiliar with being identified as bisexual in public, he initially felt embarrassed wearing the shirt, but he eventually learned how to cope with the sometimes awkward feeling of visibility.Now DeLaney’s body reflects his nonconforming gender, and he is recognizably queer regardless of the slogan on his shirt or the political sign in his hand. Without his previous experiences, he acknowledges it may have been harder to endure his blatant queerness. He compares this to confronting medical treatments as a child and then as an adult. Eventually he learned what to expect, and he came to understand that expressing his true gender is worth the risks associated with becoming visible.

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Visibility
Sam Waters

Waters compares the representation of trans men and trans women in the media, both in the 1990s and presently. According to him, trans men are still largely invisible.

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In the 1990s, most media representation and support groups were catered specifically toward trans women, while trans men remained largely in the background. Similarly, today the most well known transgender advocates are transgender women. Because trans women face higher rates of violence and discrimination, it is important to represent them broadly in discussions on transgender issues. However, Waters felt that in some ways conversations around transgender men are lacking in depth. Additionally, Waters discussed the loss of privilege that trans women experience when transitioning, in contrast to the privilege that trans men gain.

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Visibility
JoAnne Metzler

Metzler describes the recent meteoric rise of transgender visibility and support for transgender rights, on a local scale as well as a nationally.

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While thinking about her life, Metzler is astounded by how much progress has been made by the trans community, particularly just since 2014. She begins by mentioning the Kimberly and Beck calamity, which occurred in May 2014 when hosts of The Morning Buzz on local radio station 98.9 verbally attacked the transgender community and a transgender child on air. Metzler particularly notes the immediate support they received from the larger Rochester community and even the international community. She adds that the Trans Alliance of Greater Rochester (TAGR) was not the catalyst for any actions against Kimberly and Beck; they were simply reacting to the advocacy led by allies.Metzler also discusses Caitlyn Jenner and other transgender celebrities, as well as media representations of trans people, describing the recent rise in visibility and acceptance as a 'planetary shift.'Metzler highlights the progressive nature of Rochesterians. The Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley has been active for more than forty years, and The Empty Closet, Metzler speculates, may be the longest running LGBT newspaper in the world.

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Visibility
Sam Waters

With increased acceptance of transgender individuals, Waters fears that the community may lose its sense of difference and its cohesion and uniqueness.

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Waters speculated that soon transgender people will stop being seen as a deviation from “normal” society. As transgender people gain more acceptance and transition earlier in life, they will face less adversity. While Waters recognized this as a benefit, he also acknowledged that it comes at a cost. He compared this idea to the loss of “gay ghettos.” As gay and lesbian people are more accepted by heteronormative society, gay bars and other traditionally queer spaces are no longer seen as necessary safe havens. In the same way, Waters questioned whether or not the transgender community will continue to exist.

Timeline

1952 - Christine Jorgensen Becomes First American to Have a Sex Change

Formerly an Army private, Christine Jorgensen underwent sex change surgeries and hormone treatments in Denmark. Her transition was announced in headlines across the U.S., making her an instant celebrity and transsexual advocate.

August 1966 - Riots at Compton’s Cafeteria

Because drag queens and transsexual women were often excluded from gay bars, Compton’s Cafeteria was a popular meeting place for drag queens and transsexual women in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco. Though they frequently faced discrimination and brutality from police, drag queens and transsexual women fought back in August 1966 and started a riot. Members of the gay community picketed the restaurant after it prohibited queens from entering.

1966 “The Transsexual Phenomenon”

German-American endocrinologist and sexologist Harry Benjamin published “The Transsexual Phenomenon.” This book outlined how transsexual people could transition medically and eventually evolved into the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care.

June 1969 The Stonewall Riots

The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City, was a popular place for sexual outcasts, including many drag queens and trans women. Anger over enduring frequent raids from police officers, patrons of the Stonewall Inn rioted for several days and nights, a series of demonstrations which would be called the Christopher Street Riots. These events are widely considered to have sparked the Gay Liberation Movement.

1970 Gay Liberation Front in Rochester

Bob Orson and Larry Fine started a chapter of the Gay Liberation Front at the University of Rochester.

1970 The Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries

Veterans of the Stonewall Riots Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson started Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, or STAR House, which provided food, clothing, and shelter to transgender youth in New York City. This organization sought to care for children who had been abandoned by a transphobic society.

January 1971 The Empty Closet first published

Rochester’s LGBT newspaper began humbly as a newsletter for the University of Rochester’s Gay Liberation Front. The newspaper is the oldest and longest running LGBT newspaper in New York State, and possibly in the world.

1973 Gay Alliance Founded

As most members of the Gay Liberation Front were not affiliated with the University of Rochester, the group decided to move off campus and form the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley.

1973 Homosexuality Removed from DSM

The Third Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which is used by psychologists to diagnose patients, removed “Homosexuality” as a psychological disorder.

1974 September 30th Transexuals and Transvestites Unite!

The first meeting of Transexuals and Transvestites Unite! occurred at 366 Grand Avenue Apt 3. Organized by Sandra Pierce, this social and support group was the first of its kind in Rochester.

1974 December 13th Leah Wilder Murdered

On December 13th 1974, Peter Secore stabbed Leah Wilder, a transexual woman, to death in their home at 31 Comfort St in Rochester. Secore, convicted of first-degree manslaughter, claimed that he was repulsing Wilder’s sexual advances, though a witness claimed that Secore planned the murder. Wilder was 33 years old at the time of her death.

1975 Transgender Protections in Minneapolis

Minneapolis became the first U.S. city to pass legislation prohibiting discrimination against transgender people.

October 1975 Fantasia Fair Founded

This year marked the first annual gathering of transgender people in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The conference began with mostly transsexual women and crossdressers, but it has since expanded to include any gender variant person. Pamela Barres, a transgender woman interviewed in this project, attended the Fair in 1990. The Fantasia Fair continues today.

1976 February Frankenstein in Drag

Renee Joy Hughson began writing “Frankenstein in Drag” column in The Empty Closet. This regular column sought to educate the public on transexual issues as well as to empower transexual people to live authentically. The column was later renamed “Over the Rainbow.”

1976 October TV / TS Support Group by Gay Brotherhood of Rochester

Two professional therapists began a transvestite and transexual support group, organized by the Gay Brotherhood of Rochester. In her column in The Empty Closet, Renee Joy Hughson described the positive impact this diverse group made on her life.

August 1977 Renee Richards

Following a New York Supreme Court ruling, Renee Richards, a transgender woman who played professional tennis, became the first openly transgender athlete to compete in the United States Open.

1977 September Last Publication by Renee Joy Hughson

Renee Joy Hughson published the last installment of her column in The Empty Closet.

1985 Transvestites Anonymous

Horace Lethbridge started Transvestites Anonymous (TVA) support group, which functioned out of the Wellesley Counseling Center at 31 Wellesley Street, Rochester.

1987 Gender Identity Disorder

The Fourth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which is used by psychologists to diagnose patients, added “gender identity disorder” as a classification for transgender people. While this classification helps transgender people access insurance, it further stigmatized transsexuality as a mental disorder.

1987 International Foundation of Gender Education

The International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) was founded by Merissa Sherrill Lynn and has since become “a leading advocate and educational organization for promoting the self-definition and free expression of individual gender identity.”

1987 November Use of LGBT Acronym

In an article about the March on Washington, the author used “transperson,” “transgenderal,” and “LGBT.” This was the first article using those terms published in The Empty Closet.

September 1989 CD Network

Transvestites Anonymous, the Rochester-based support group, reformed and was renamed the CD Network.

August 1992 First International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy

Activists and lawyers from around the country met in Houston for the first of six gatherings. During these conferences, participants laid the groundwork for the transgender rights movement. Seminars addressed issues relating to health care, employment, military service, and other legal areas.

1993 First State Protections

Minnesota extended protections against discrimination to transgender people, becoming the first state to do so.

1994 The Gazebo Chat Room

Gwendolyn Ann Smith started The Gazebo, a chat room for transgender people, on AOL. This website provided a virtual gathering place and forum for transgender people to connect. Within a few years, The Gazebo reported tens of thousands of unique visitors each month.

1995 Transgender Lobbying

Riki Anne Wilchins created GenderPAC, a transgender advocacy group in Washington, D.C. She and Phyllis Frye, known as the grandmother of the transgender rights movement, held the first transgender lobbying day, organized by GenderPAC

1995 Rochester Transgender Organization

The Rochester Transgender Organization founded.

1995 Susans.org

An early internet forum, susans.org was created by a transgender woman named Susan to create connections in chatrooms.

1997 June RTO Marches in Rochester Pride Parade

1999 Transgender Day of Remembrance

Transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith organized the first Transgender Day of Remembrance in San Francisco. The candlelight vigil originally was held in honor of Rita Hester, who had been murdered in 1998. The event is now observed internationally and pays respects to the hundreds of transgender people who are murdered annually due to transphobic hatred.

2001 Rochester Non-Discrimination Ordinance

Rochester City Council adds gender identity to its non-discrimination ordinance.

December 2001 FTM Group

k.k. forms FTM Group as sub-group of the Rochester Transgender Organization.

2002 Transgender Law Center

The Transgender Law Center, a civil rights organization that advocates for transgender communities, opened its first office in San Francisco. Within a few years, many more advocacy organizations were founded, including the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Center for Excellence for Transgender Health.

2003 GENDA introduced to NYS Assembly and Senate

The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act was first introduced to New York State. Passed Assembly for first time in 2007. As of 2015 legislative session, GENDA has never made it to the floor of the Senate.

May 29, 2003 First Transgender Person Officially Visits White House

June 2004 A March of Our Own

San Francisco’s first Trans March took place. While this Trans March is recognized as the largest in the United States, similar marches have become annual events in several cities, including Rochester.

2005 Rochester Trans Group

The Rochester Transgender Organization changed their name to the Rochester Trans Group.

With the Insurance Gender Nondiscrimination Act, California became the first state to ensure transgender health care coverage.

2007 Lobby Day in Albany

Members of the Rochester Transgender Organization participated in Lobby Day in Albany, organized by the Empire State Pride Agenda. Participants met with New York State legislators to push the passage of the Gender Expression Non Discrimination Act (GENDA). This annual event was later renamed Equality & Justice Day.

September 2008 Diane Schroer

The Library of Congress, after learning that Diane Schroer was transgender, rescinded a job offer as a terrorism analyst. Schroer sued and, after a District Court judge concluded that the Library of Congress was in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, won the discrimination lawsuit.

November 2008 A Transgender Mayor

Stu Rasmussen became the first openly transgender mayor in America after being elected mayor of Silverton, Oregon.

April 2009 Murder of Transgender Woman Labeled a Hate Crime

A jury in Colorado found Allen Andrade guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of Angie Zapata, a transgender woman. The case was among the first in which a hate crime law was applied to a transphobic murder.

June 2009 Chaz Bono

Chaz Bono, the child of Cher and Sonny Bono and formerly known as Chastity Bono, came out as a transgender man.

2009 Presidential Appointees

Dylan Orr became the first openly transgender person to be appointed to any U.S. Presidential Administration. In December 2009, Orr began as an attorney at the Department of Labor under President Obama, and his appointment was quickly followed by Amanda Simpson’s in January 2010. Simpson became a senior technical adviser in the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security.

August 2010 Trans Action Group

Peter Vaillancourt began the Trans Action Group, a grassroots organizing group to further the political agenda of transgender people in Rochester. The group worked with the New Students for a Democratic Society to promote a number of issues. The group dissolved after a year.

October 17, 2010 First Openly Transgender Judge

Phyllis R. Frye was sworn in as a judge in Houston, becoming the nation’s first openly transgender judge.

November 2010 College Sports

Kye Allums, who played basketball at George Washington University, came out as a transgender man. He is believed to be the first openly transgender person to compete in Division I college basketball.

August 2011 Genesee Valley Gender Variants

Maur DeLaney started the Genesee Valley Gender Variants group. This group sought to create a non-judgemental space for people to experiment with their gender and socialize with other gender nonconforming people.

2012 Title VII Applies to Transgender Employees

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which made it illegal to discriminate based on sex, also protected transgender employees.

2012 Meeting of the Groups

Rochester hosted the first annual Meeting of the Groups. Transgender support groups from various cities in New York and Pennsylvania gathered to share ideas and collaborate on future events.

June 2012 Buffalo and Syracuse Pride Parades

RTG marches in Buffalo and Syracuse Pride Parades

November 2012 Trans March & Transgender Day of Recognition

RTG holds first Trans March and Transgender Day of Recognition in Rochester.

2013 Trans Alliance of Greater Rochester

The Rochester Trans Group is renamed the Trans Alliance of Greater Rochester.

2013 Gender Dysphoria

The American Psychiatric Association updated its manual, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, to include Gender Dysphoria. Gender Dysphoria replaced Gender Identity Disorder, which had previously been used to categorize transgender people. Under the new diagnosis, psychologists acknowledge that mental stress associated with transgenderism is caused by social pressures, not by transgenderism itself.

2013 Rochester Non-Discrimination Ordinance Updated

Rochester City Council adds gender expression to non-discrimination ordinance in addition to gender identity.

May 30 2013 Fatima Woods Murdered

Fatima Woods, a trans woman, was stabbed to death on Dewey Avenue in Rochester, NY. Vincent Walter was charged with second-degree murder in relationship to her death.

April 2014 Transgender Studies Quarterly

Duke University Press published Transgender Studies Quarterly, the first regularly published academic journal dedicated to transgender studies.

May 17 2014 City of Rochester Employees Receive Transition Coverage

Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren announced that the City of Rochester will add transgender healthcare benefits for employees and their family members who are enrolled in the City’s ‘enhanced’ medical plan.

May 22 2014 Kimberly & Beck Fired

After the City of Rochester announced that employees could access transition coverage through insurance, Kimberly & Beck, hosts of The Morning Buzz show on the local 98.9 radio station, verbally attacked the transgender community and outed a local transgender child. Within a week, sponsors withdrew from the show and, in reaction to an international petition, Entercom fired Kimberly Ray and Barry Beck.

May 2014 A Medicare Exclusion Reversed

The Department of Health and Human Services reversed a Medicare policy in place since 1981 which banned Medicare from covering gender-affirming surgeries. Under the new policy, Medicare must now cover transition care.

June 2014 Laverne Cox on TIME Magazine

Laverne Cox, an actress and advocate, became the first openly transgender person to appear on the cover of Time Magazine.

December 2014 Changes at the Department of Justice

The Department of Justice ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applied to claims of discrimination based on gender identity.

June 1 2015 Caitlyn Jenner Introduces Herself

Caitlyn Jenner, formerly Bruce, an Olympic gold medalist, author, actor and reality television star, discussed her transgender identity and transition an article in Vanity Fair. Using her existing national platform, Jenner has become a well-known transgender advocate.Many transgender people are critical of Jenner’s involvement in community advocacy, arguing that she is out of touch with struggles facing most transgender people. She has also made remarks that many considered to be transphobic and homophobic, suggesting that her personal politics oppose the established politics of the transgender rights movement.

June 26 2015 Obergefell vs. Hodges

In a landmark Supreme Court decision, same-sex marriage became legal throughout the United States. This ruling effectively made the legal sex of any spouse irrelevant, allowing transgender people to marry regardless of the sex listed on state documents.

August 18 2015 White House Hires an Openly Transgender Staff Member

Formerly a policy adviser at the National Center for Transgender Eqaulity, Raffi Freedman-Gurspan was hired as an outreach and recruitment director on President Obama’s staff.

January 20th 2016 Gov. Cuomo expands transgender protections in NYS

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo enacted an executive order which expanded “state’s existing anti-discrimination rules to prohibit discrimination against a transgender person when it comes to jobs, loans, schools and public accommodations.”

Adapted from Milestones in the American Transgender Movement, published by the New York Times in May 2015.

Impressions

The experiences of transgender Rochesterians show deliberate action, often beginning with people advocating for themselves on an individual basis. As one person transformed their immediate environment in order to survive, they created a framework of inclusion that allowed others to succeed. Eventually, after decades of transgender people becoming agents of change, they are being recognized for their accomplishments.

As early as the 1970s, transgender people in Rochester were demanding recognition within the growing Gay Liberation Front. Motivated by self-preservation, transexual women formed support groups, empowered each other, and spoke out about their experiences in a hostile world. Their work questioned the relationship between gender and sexuality, and by extension, the relationship between trans liberation and gay liberation.Unfortunately this dialogue, started in the 1970s, was answered with strong backlash in the 1980s. Some trans-exclusive feminist theory asserted that trans(s)exual women were not truly women, thus banishing trans people from women’s spaces, while many gay men ostracized trans women because they were too feminine. As gay activism shifted from radical demonstrations to institutionalized non-profit organizations, the priorities of advocates also shifted to reflect those of wealthy donors who were primarily affluent gay men. And as the HIV epidemic claimed unprecedented numbers of trans lives, the community suffered tremendously

Kicked out of gay bars and diagnosed with an identity disorder, trans Rochesterians sought refuge in Transvestites Anonymous, a support group created by therapist Dr. Horace Lethbridge. By 1985, members took control and created an autonomous group. Within four years, Transvestites Anonymous was renamed the Crossdresser’s Network, and it quickly became a lifeline for more than seventy members in the Rochester area.Gaining support through the CD Network and a growing community, trans people began reclaiming space in Rochester throughout the 1990s. Under a banner reading “Transgendered and Proud,” the newly formed Rochester Transgender Group marched annually in the Rochester Pride Parade, demanding acknowledgement from the gay and lesbian community. As the early internet developed, it was quickly populated by trans people who were desperate to connect with others across expanding geographies. By refusing to settle for mistreatment, transgender people compelled their employers to adopt inclusive policies, created welcoming congregations in places of worship, and necessitated improvements in mental and physical healthcare. This momentum progressed into the new millennium and continues today.

This mobilization of transgender individuals is what Time Magazine referred to as “The Next Civil Rights Frontier” in 2014. However, according to the activists and community members, transgender people have been establishing new frontiers for more than forty years. By honoring this history, we bear witness to decades of struggles, successes, and strides made by transgender people. As they transformed themselves, they also transformed Rochester

Glossary

AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP New York)

Formed in New York City in 1987, ACT UP New York is a direct action advocacy organization known for staging dramatic protests and confronting public officials. ACT UP members continue to advocate on behalf of people with AIDS and work to end the AIDS epidemic globally. ActupNY.org

American Boyz NYC

A support group for people on the transmasculine spectrum during the 1990s. This group was the first of its kind and provided one of the first safe spaces for non-binary identified people. In the late 1990s, the organization recognized several autonomous chapters across the U.S.

Androgynous

An expression of gender that is partially masculine and partially feminine. It can also refer to an indeterminate gender expression, or an expression of gender which lacks explicitly masculine or feminine traits.

Bathroom Bills

A piece of legislation which attempts to regulate bathroom use based on sex assigned at birth. As nondiscrimination laws expand to include transgender identities, opponents have raised the issue of bathroom safety. Their argument claims that if transgender people are allowed to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender and not their sex assigned at birth, then sexual predators will claim to be transgender in order to gain access to bathrooms of the opposite sex. Similar arguments have been used fallaciously in opposition to the Equal Rights Act and other non-discrimination policies throughout history.In 2016, North Carolina passed HB2, a bill which bans anyone from using a public facility that does not match their sex assigned at birth. This particular piece of legislation has caused an uproar among trans advocates. Similar bills are being considered in other states. Many conservative politicians use bathroom bills to advance their careers, often at the expense of transgender rights.Not limited to legislation, bathrooms have been a source of turmoil for transgender people for decades. Many people included in this project reported being denied access to restrooms which align with their gender identity. Transgender people, particularly those who do not fit comfortably in binary genders, often face the threat of violence in either “Male” or “Female” restrooms.

Cisgender

A person whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth. A cisgender person is a non-transgender person.

Conversion Therapy

A therapeutic technique that is based in the belief that transgenderism is morally wrong and that seeks to “cure” the transgender person by convincing them to embrace the gender they were assigned at birth. This form of therapy, while once popular, has been decried by psychologists due to the adverse effects it often has on patients. Conversion therapy is also often used in the context of homosexuality.In 2016, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced an executive order which bans insurance coverage of conversion therapy in New York State.

Crossdresser

A person who wears clothing stereotypically associated with a different gender, often as a temporary expression of their identity. Typically this term refers specifically to men who wear clothing associated with women.

CD Network

A support and social group formed in 1989 and located in Rochester, NY. By 1991, the group included over 70 members, held special events, published a newsletter, and operated a lending library. This group is no longer active.

Drag Queen

A man who wears clothing, makeup, and accessories that are often a caricature of femininity. This expression of gender is typically performed for an audience. Before and during the 1970s, many transgender women called themselves drag queens because language did not yet differentiate between the two identities.

Dysphoria

A profound dissatisfaction; the opposite of euphoria. Dysphoria is often used to describe the mental stress caused by mismatching gender identity and sex assigned at birth.

Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA)

A political advocacy organization that operated in New York State. Founded in 1990, the Empire State Pride Agenda advanced LGBT legislation, including hate-crime laws, the repeal of sodomy statutes, nondiscrimination policies, and marriage equality. Following executive orders announced by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo that accomplished most of these goals, the Empire State Pride Agenda dissolved in December 2015.

Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA)

A bill which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity during the hiring process. While this particular bill was first introduced to the United States Congress in 1994, similar legislation has been proposed since 1974. The original bill, introduced in 1994, only included protections based on sexual orientation.In 2007, gender identity was added to the protections, following demands from transgender advocates. However, the addition made the bill less favorable to conservative politicians, and, with the support of many gay rights advocates, gender identity was dropped from the bill. Those who supported eliminating gender identity from the legislation believed that the bill would be passed if it only covered sexual orientation, and some gay rights advocates were willing to push legislation at the expense of transgender people. Following debates and the outcome of the 2008 election, gender identity was reintroduced into the language of the bill in 2009.As of 2016, no version of ENDA has passed through Congress.

Fantasia Fair

A week-long conference for transgender and gender nonconforming individuals. First held in October 1975 in Provincetown, Massachusetts, this annual event provides social and educational programs for participants. The Fantasia Fair continues today, making it the longest running annual gathering of transgender people.FantasiaFair.org

Gender Expression

The way in which a person communicates their gender to others. Gender expression can include clothing, inflection of voice, mannerisms, and social roles.

Gender Expression Non Discrimination Act (GENDA)

A proposed law in New York State which would add gender identity and expression to the state’s existing human rights and hate crime laws. First introduced to the House and the Assembly in 2003, the bill was passed by the Assembly in 2007 and each year since. As of the 2015 legislative session, GENDA has never reached the floor of the Senate.

Gender Identity

A person’s internal sense of masculinity, femininity, a combination of the two, or neither

Gender Nonconforming

A person who rejects societal expectations of gender expression and identity. The term is sometimes used to include cisgender people who do not adhere to the stereotypical ideals associated with their sex assigned at birth, but do not identify as transgender.

Genesee Valley Gender Variants (GVGV or GV2)

A group in Rochester, NY that provides a non-judgemental social environment for transgender and gender nonconforming people. Maur DeLaney started the group in 2011 after recognizing a continued need for safe spaces within the community.

Harry Benjamin Standards of Care

A collection of suggested guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of Gender Dysphoria, formerly Gender Identity Disorder. First published in 1979, the guidelines are provided by the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA) and have been revised consistently as medical treatment and research improve. Harry Benjamin Standards of Care

Hormone Replacement Therapy

The use of feminizing or masculinizing hormones to change body chemistry and appearance. This treatment is used by transgender people who wish to achieve a more masculine or feminine body type.

International Foundation for Gender Education

An education and advocacy based organization which promotes an individualistic understanding of gender. Founded in 1987 in Waltham, Massachusetts, IFGE claims to operate the most complete transgender bookstore and publishes the Transgender Tapestry magazine. Ifge.org

The Lesbian Avengers

A direct action group which advocated for lesbian visibility, both within the lesbian community and outside of it. Founded in 1992 in New York City, the group rejected traditional forms of advocacy, including petitions and picket lines. Instead they opted for sensationalized demonstrations that attracted media attention. The most enduring and well known of these demonstrations is the annual Dyke March.lesbianavengers.com

Non-binary / Genderqueer

An expression of gender or a gender identity which rejects the notion of two distinct and opposite genders.

OUT Magazine

The most popular and widely circulated LGBT lifestyle magazine in the United States. It was founded in 1990 and is published monthly.

Psychological Testing

An outdated evaluation which determined whether or not a person was eligible for medical transition. The test was performed by a neurologist and included math examinations, Rorschach tests, and other activities. These were used to evaluate personality attributes and compare them to traits stereotypically associated with masculinity and femininity. This examination was popular during the 1970s and 1980s.

Queer

A fluid identity label which embraces expressions of gender and sexuality that deviate from heteronormative ideals.Before the 1990s, queer was often used as a derogatory slur for gay or gender nonconforming people. In the late 1980s, the slur was reclaimed by political radicals within the LGBT community who used the word to reflect direct opposition to heteronormative culture. In the 1990s, queer theory developed as an academic field that combines feminist theory and LGBT studies.

Queer Nation

A queer activism organization which confronts anti-LGBTQ violence, media misrepresentation, and oppression. Founded in 1990 in New York City by members of ACT UP, the organization was known for its adversarial direct action techniques and public demonstrations.queernationny.org

Rochester Trans Group (RTG)

A support and social group in Rochester for transgender individuals. A continuation of the Rochester Transgender Organization, the group was renamed Rochester Trans Group in 2005. Between 2005 and 2013, the name was changed several times between Rochester Transgender Group, Rochester Trans Group, and Rochester Trans* Group as terminology changed. The initials RTG remained constant throughout this time.

Rochester Transgender Organization (RTO)

A support and social group in Rochester for transgender individuals founded in 1995. In 2005, the organization was renamed the Rochester Trans Group.

Stone Butch Blues

A novel written in 1993 by transgender activist Leslie Feinberg. The main character, Jess Goldberg, questions conventional ideals of gender and blurs the lines between butch lesbianism and transmasculinity. This book influenced lesbian culture in the 1990s by reintroducing butch identities and questioning the relationship between lesbians and transmen.

Susans.org

An online resource for transgender people. The website was first launched in 1995 as a chatroom for transgender women to connect on the early internet. www.susans.org

Trans

An umbrella term which neatly encompasses transgender, transsexual, and other gender nonconforming identities

Trans Action Group (TAG)

A group in Rochester which focused on political advancement of transgender people. Founded in 2010 by Peter Vaillancourt, the group partnered with the New Students for a Democratic Society to promote a number of issues. The group dissolved after a year.

Trans Alliance of Greater Rochester (TAGR)

An organization in Rochester which provides social support and educational services to the Rochester area. A continuation of the Rochester Trans Group, the name was changed to reflect the collaboration between other queer and trans groups in Rochester, as well as extending services beyond the transgender community.tagrny.org

Transgender

A person whose gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth.

Transition

The process that a transgender person may choose to align themselves more closely with their gender identity. The process of transition may be a combination of social, emotional, or physical changes.Some transgender people have criticized using the term “transition,” arguing that the word implies a distinct beginning and end of the process. It does not accurately reflect the ongoing process of hormone replacement therapy or socialization that many transgender people endure throughout their lives.

Transmasculine Spectrum

Reflecting the diversity of masculinity, this term refers to people who were assigned female at birth and express a masculine gender. This term acknowledges that gender exists more accurately on an incremental scale and asserts that masculinity is not expressed in any one distinct way. Transmasculine people may or may not identify as men, fulfill male gender roles, or undergo masculinizing medical treatments.

Transphobia

An aversion to transgender or gender nonconforming individuals. This may be expressed through discrimination, fear, anger, or discomfort.

Transexual

An outdated term for a person whose gender identity does not match their sex assigned at birth and who has undergone medical intervention to align their bodies more accurately with their gender. Transexual was commonly used in the 1970s. This particular spelling emphasized a reclaimed sexuality and resisted the medicalized connotations that transsexual held.

Transsexual

A person whose gender identity does not match their sex assigned at birth and who has undergone medical intervention to align their bodies more accurately with their gender. This spelling was created and used widely by medical professionals.In a contemporary context, transsexual holds a negative connotation. While many people who have undergone hormone replacement therapy or gender-affirming surgeries identify as transsexual, the term is typically viewed as outdated.

Transvestite

A person who dresses in clothing typically associated with a different gender for sexual fulfillment. Typically transvestism refers to a man who wears stereotypically feminine clothing in a sexual context.Historically, this term was used as a synonym for transsexual. In a contemporary context, transvestite is viewed as a derogatory term.

Transvestites Anonymous

A counselling group in Rochester started by Dr. Horace Lethbridge for transvestites and transsexual people. In 1985, members took control of the group. In 1989, the group was renamed the CD Network.

Transvestites & Transexuals Unite!

A social and support group for transexuals and transvestites in Rochester founded in 1974 by Sandra Pierce.

Tri-Ess

A national organization which provides educational, social, and supportive resources for heterosexual crossdressers and their allies. Also known as the Society for the Second Self, the organization was founded in 1976 by Virginia Prince and Carol Beecroft.tri-ess.org